Dr Stewart Johnstone

Publications

Human resource management in recession : restructuring and alternatives to downsizing in times of crisis

Johnstone Stewart

Human Resource Management Journal Vol 34, pp. 138-157 (2024)

https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12512

Exporting is a team sport : the link between management training and performance in SMEs

Idris Bochra, Saridakis George, Georgellis Yannis, Lai Yanqing, Johnstone Stewart

International Journal of Manpower (2023)

https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2023-0150

Employee voice at work

Johnstone Stewart

A Research Agenda for Work and Employment (2023) (2023)

Guest editorial : Work from home (WFH), employee productivity and wellbeing: lessons from COVID-19 and future implications

Saridakis George, Georgellis Yannis, Benson Vladena, Garcia Stephen, Johnstone Stewart, Lai Yanqing

Information Technology & People Vol 36, pp. 1757-1765 (2023)

https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-08-2023-993

Never 'one-size-fits-all' : Mick Marchington's unique voice on voice, from micro-level informality to macro-level turbulence

Budd John W, Johnstone Stewart, Lamare J Ryan

Human Resource Management Journal Vol 33, pp. 539-550 (2023)

https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12451

Comparative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on work and employment—why industrial relations institutions matter

Dobbins Tony, Johnstone Stewart, Kahancová Marta, Lamare Ryan J, Wilkinson Adrian

Industrial Relations Vol 62, pp. 115-125 (2023)

https://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12328

More publications

Teaching

I have experience of designing, delivering and managing programmes and modules concerned with the management of people and work at all levels. At Strathclyde I teach a range of undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA students. I am also the Editor of an Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management, which contains over 400 entries on core HR areas and key concepts.  A popular and comprehensive resource for students, a fully revised 2nd edition was released in February 2023. 

Research Interests

My research activity has focused on:

Employee voice and participation in both unionised and non-union contexts, and especially issues of labour management partnership, a debate to which I have contributed extensively for over 20 years. See for example:

Never one size fits all: Mick Marchington's unique voice on voice, from micro-level informality to macro-level turbulence Human Resource Management Journal

The potential of labour management partnership: a longitudinal case analysis, British Journal of Management.

Developing positive employment relations: international experiences of labour management partnership, Palgrave.

Finding a Voice at Work: New Perspectives on Employment Relations, Oxford University Press.

Employment restructuring in times of crisis, and in particular HRM responses to turbulence at the organisational level including the 2008 financial crisis and 2020 coronavirus pandemic.  See for example:

Comparative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on work and employment - Why industrial relations institutions matter, Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society.

The Global Financial Crisis, Work and Employment Ten Years On,  Economic and Industrial Democracy

Downsizing, The Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management

Employment practices, laboour flexibility and the Great Recession: an automotive case study, Economic and Industrial Democracy

HRM in SMEs and the extent to which HRM challenges and practices are distinctive in smaller organisational settings.  See for example:

Training and performance in SMEs: Empirical evidence from large-scale data from the UK, Journal of Small Business Management

Are the responses of small firms different from large firms in times of recession? Journal of Business Venturing.

Human resource practices, employee attitudes and small firm performance, International Small Business Journal.

Professional Activities

Internal Examiner

Examiner

15/12/2023

Employee Voice

Speaker

7/11/2023

Employee Voice

Speaker

7/11/2023

Reconceptualising Employee Voice

Speaker

14/9/2023

The future of union management partnership

Speaker

3/9/2023

Involvement and Participation Association WIG Meeting

Participant

25/5/2023

More professional activities

Projects

Research Excellence Award: Hearing the unheard: amplifying the voices of frontline essential workers £99,008

Johnstone, Stewart (Principal Investigator) Briken, Kendra (Principal Investigator)

Employee voice – defined as the ability to have a say at work and influence over workplace affairs – is a central dimension of a good job and fair work (Fairwork Convention, 2021, Norris-Green and Gifford, 2021; Taylor, 2017; Wilkinson et.al, 2021). For much of the twentieth century in Britain employee voice was synonymous with trade unions and collective bargaining. However, union representation is now unavailable in 90% private sector workplaces, and limited voice has a disproportionate impact on workers most vulnerable to exploitation. It also has the the potential to exacerbate intersectional inequalities among those already identified as having a constrained voice at work including women, the disabled, younger workers and ethnic minorities (Hodder and Lefteris, 2015; Wacjman 2002; William et.al, 2009). The pandemic highlighted societies dependency on frontline 'essential workers' defined by the Scottish Government as 'people who keep the country running'. However, many essential workers, including those in retail, logistics and the platformed mediated gig economy, are in low paid and insecure employment. These 'minimum wage heroes' (BBC, 2020) are also among the most likely to be treated unfairly but least likely to have access to traditional collective union voice mechanisms. This does not, however, mean such workers have no voice. Many employers have devised their own organisational voice channels, though concerns have been raised about the extent to which these can challenge management authority or promote employee interests. Workers also have alternative means of expressing themselves, including informal dialogue with peers and managers, social media, as well as support from other interest and advocacy groups. However, little is known about whether such channels are sufficient in empowering vulnerable frontline workers, promoting good jobs or promulgating fair work. Assessing this issue is the aim of the project.

01-Jan-2022 - 01-Jan-2025

Amplifying Employee Voice and Hearing the Unheard: A Multidisciplinary Study of Contemporary Working Lives in Deindustrialised Communities

Johnstone, Stewart (Principal Investigator) Briken, Kendra (Co-investigator) Cunningham, Ian (Co-investigator) Hadjisolomou, Tasos (Co-investigator) McCarthy, Tony (Co-investigator) McIntyre, Stuart (Co-investigator) Scholarios, Dora (Co-investigator) Taylor, Philip (Co-investigator)

01-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2025

‘Reward to Retain’ Evaluating the impact of ENABLE and UNISONS’s agreement to improve recruitment and retention through fair work

Cunningham, Ian (Principal Investigator) Baluch, Alina (Co-investigator) Jendro, Eva (Co-investigator) Scholarios, Dora (Co-investigator) Johnstone, Stewart (Co-investigator) James, Philip (Co-investigator)

Research undertaken in Enable explored issues around recruitment, retention reward and retention in the organisation. The research proposal aimed to address the following objectives: 1. Why staff join and remain within ENABLE in light of the agreement with UNISON; 2. What changes the agreement has made to the organisation’s attraction and selection strategies; 3. How these changes have impacted on service quality; and 4. How the values of Fair Work can be progressed in future relations between ENABLE and UNISON.

01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2021

More projects